librevslibriConfusable pair

Quick tell: libre is a adjective, libri is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“libre” is an adjective and “libri” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,891
“libre” frequency rank
#40,068
“libri” frequency rank
75959
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature libre libri
Definition frei Plural des Substantivs libro

Where the eye mixes libre and libri

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. libre and libri follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
libre
5 ch
libri

Visual trap between libre and libri

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: libre is [libʁ] while libri is [ˈliːbri]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “libre” becomes i in “libri”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75959, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

libre is recorded at frequency rank #35,891, classified as anadj, pronounced [libʁ]. libri is at rank #40,068, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈliːbri].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 75959, this pair ranks #295,152 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of libre vs libri

Shared letters: bilr. Private to "libre": e. Private to "libri": -.

"libre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "libri" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • libre ← ilbre · lbire · libbre · librre · lirbe · llibre
  • libri ← ilbri · lbiri · libbri · libir · librri · lirbi · llibri

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "libre" for "libri" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "libre" is an adjective and "libri" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "libre" or "libri"?
"libre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,891 in our German list, against #40,068 for "libri". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "libre" and "libri" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "libre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "libri" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #295,152 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "libre" and "libri" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "libri vs Lori". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #295,152 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list